No, it is a simple acknowledgment that the American public--while smart at times in the aggregate--hold none too few absurd beliefs in private. Thus, the "news" that 24 percent of Americans believe that Obama is a "Muslim" should be taken in stride. Sure, the stakes are a bit higher than how many Americans believe that Elvis is still alive (7 percent by the way). And yes, it is true that the "Obama is a secret Muslim meme" does speak to the power of a very basic idea in the White American psyche that black folk, even in the 21st century, are somehow not "real" or "regular" Americans.

But for my two cents, the idea that Obama is a Muslim (as though that is a crime) is not half as disturbing as the data suggesting that a substantial percentage of Americans still believe that the failed war in Iraq was linked to 9/11 and Osama bin Laden. Ultimately, in the twenty-four news cycle, and the bloviating chorus of the Right-wing noise machine we see two publics. The first: the devotees of Fox, Limbaugh, Beck, et al. who live in their own echo chamber of mutually sustaining talking points and epistemic closure, a framing of the world that is increasingly immune to fact, correction, or intervention. The second: the rest of us who live in the reality based community. The struggle going forward is how to talk to one another about making America a better place, when the basic terms of the conversation seem impossible to agree on.

For some context, here are some other "strange" beliefs held by the American public:

In the immortal words of Forrest Gump, "stupid is as stupid does," and it seems that in the age of the New Right our political environment is more and more coloured by a toxic and contagious fog of willful stupidity.

4 comments:

Anonymous
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I think while this highlights racial tensions which are felt by many towards anyone with dark skin in this country, I also want to emphasize the hatred directed towards Muslims by even those sides of the debate supposedly grounded in 'reality'. This Aljazeera article speaks of this concisely:

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/08/201081912522467685.html

Could it be perhaps that the Muslim which exists in the minds eye of so many is so incapable of other than blind practice of a religion which is caricatured as somehow more backwards and irrational than the other faiths on this planet. Therefore even though Obama has declared his Christianity and left quite a convenient paper trail in corroboration, one still must doubt because Muslims cannot make such decisions as to leave their faith for another. That would imply a degree of independent thought which is hard to conceptualize Muslims as having.

I think an element of this is that many Christian groups, especially prosletyzers like Evangelicals, Mormons, Jehovahs Witnesses, as well as the Catholic, from whom 'everyone' feels like they can poach members, recognize Islam as strong competition.

You'd think after George W. Bush getting reelected, I'd have reconciled myself to the profound willful ignorance of a large section of the American people, but it just makes me sad.

Yes, the whole country lives in delusion. One big example is that negroes are just as smart and no more animalistic than normal people. It's these little delusions that let us all live together in our multicultural harmony.

Meanwhile, we all know that Islam is the religion of peace. When bombs go off all around the world, killing civilians, it's those White Christians who are really doing it, in disguise.

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